--How could I believe otherwise? I----
LEAH.--[_with rage_] And you believed I had taken it, Miserable
Christian, and you cast me off! Not a question was the Jewess worth. This,
then, was thy work; this the eternity of love you promised me. Forgive me,
Heaven, that I forgot my nation to love this Christian. Let that love be
lost in hate. Love is false, unjust--hate endless, eternal.
RUD.--Cease these gloomy words of vengeance--I have wronged you. I feel it
without your reproaches. I have sinned; but to sin is human, and it would
be but human to forgive.
LEAH.--You would tempt me again? I do not know that voice.
RUD.--I will make good the evil I have done; aye, an hundredfold.
LEAH.--Aye, crush the flower, grind it under foot, then make good the evil
you have done. No! no! an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a heart for
a heart!
RUD.--Hold, fierce woman, I will beseech no more! Do not tempt heaven; let
it be the judge between us! If I have sinned through love, see that you do
not sin through hate.
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